Star Trek: Starfleet Command 3

[Mr. Socky]

I've always loved Star Trek, and I read about Star Trek: Starfleet Command 3. It looks like a lot of fun, but since of the lawsuit that took it off shelves made it very hard/expensive to find, I haven't been able to play it.
I was wondering if their was a cheaper way to get it? I've heard about the "Abandonware" stuff floating around, but it's generally crap. However, since this was actually abandoned (due to the lawsuit) I was wondering if it was literally possible to download it for free?
Or even download it from a legal source like Steam or Direct2Drive (less likely due to the same lawsuit).
Please understand that I'm not a pirate. If anyone so much as hints that it may be illegal, I'll pretty much forget it. But that's the thing, this is such a weird scenario, I'm having trouble figuring out what's actually legal.
Also, if you own it, do you like it?

 

[rsacks]

Although I have no idea how to get it, I do own this game. I thought it was pretty fun, although the controls always seemed a bit "off" to me. Many times it was easier (even on normal difficulty) just to run up to a ship, grab it with your tractor beam and pound away at it with your forward weapons. I also found it far too easy to get the best ship for each race (usually 3-4 missions into each campaign for me). Still, if you want to play a game where you fly around in a spaceship beating the crap out of other people, it was pretty good. I never played online, even though there was a significant multiplayer portion to the game (which of course no longer exists). I haven't been able to play it in a long time though since somehow the patch I downloaded seems to be corrupted and no longer works (the game loads but when I click "Start Campaign" it just freezes up). Sorry to tell you I had fun with the game but don't know where to find it.

 

[Antari]

In the case of abandoning the game, they haven't abandoned the rights to the product as sellable, its not Freeware yet. Maybe a few more years. As for it being a good game, its not bad from gameplay/tactical point of view, but leads alot to be desired in the storyline department. Its strictly ship combat. The graphics are a bit dated at this point but there are plenty of mods available for putting high rez textures in. As well as entire game changing mods if you want to turn it into something else entirely. Best bet is to hunt down an old cd copy somewhere, it won't be easy but will be worth it. Its one of the better games for the Star Trek franchise.

 

[xwhitey]

i dont know if it works are not but here
http://free-game-downloads.mosw.com/abandonware/pc/strategy_games/games_so_sy/star_trek_starfleet_command_3.html but you do have to pay